École Dansereau Meadows School teacher Andrea Kotscherofski received a nomination for the prestigious Edwin Parr Award for first year teachers. Each school board in the province nominates one outstanding first-year teacher for the award, of which one teacher is selected form each zone by a panel of judges.

Kotscherofski said she never expected to be nominated for an award like this.

“I did not expect it at all, I was flabbergasted,” she said. “I just love everything I do, it doesn‘t seem like work — I just love it. So I was very excited and very grateful.”

Kotscherofski is passionate about teaching and helping her Grade 7 and 8 classes learn everything they can. She stresses that no matter what a youth’s mark is on an exam or assignment, that there is always more to learn.

“It‘s creating those relationships with them where they know you‘re there to support them regardless if they succeed or if they fail, and you‘ll build them back up again,” she said. “They’ll come up to me for feedback, and we‘ll discuss things and we‘ll review things, and it‘s never a finished product — you can always learn more regardless of what your mark is.”

The teacher also loves to hear the stories and learn from the children’s views and understanding of the world.

“I love the connection with the students, because every day you come in and you learn a new story, and you get to hear something that you never would have working an office job. They come up with things in their heads that you never imagine yourself, it‘s just a lot of fun, its like a new story every day,” she said.

One of the factors that she believes helped her stand out is that she often stays behind to help in any way she can, including helping with sports or other activities happening around the school community.

“I don‘t feel like I work,” Kotscherofski said. “I feel like I come in and I get to collaborate with wonderful coworkers, and it‘s not working, it‘s coming in and seeing my coworkers as friends, and watching students grow as human beings.”

As a young teacher, Kotscherofski was excited to be part of the Black Gold School Division. The teacher said the division is one that is highly touted by her instructors and peers as being a friendly and inviting workplace.

“Black Gold is a very inviting school district — you just hear good things from all of the teachers everywhere. I was working for another division previously, and all of the people were kind and friendly in all of my interviews and it‘s just such a wonderful atmosphere to walk in to,” she said.

And being at École Dansereau Meadows has proven that to her. Kotscherofski said anytime that any of the staff have a problem or need an answer to a question, colleagues will always quickly step up to help out.

“You send a question out and you have an answer within seconds. If you need something, the other day there was an email going around about Q-tips, they were found within 30 seconds. It‘s an amazing staff and they have anything you need, any support, even if you just need to talk to them about something and work something out in your head, they‘re there for you,” she said.